Jack Merridew's Antagonist

Power was abused in the book, Lord of the Flies, by the two older boys, Ralph and Jack. They both thought that they knew what was best to do for their tribe since they were the oldest, and were disagreeing with each other on decisions that needed to be made in order to survive on the island. Ralph was voted to be in charge which made Jack embarrassed and jealous. Jack overpowered him by creating a new tribe from the group of boys and leading them to turn against Ralph in the end. Jack abuses his power of being the leader of his tribe by sending everyone out to hunt for Ralph and kill him. In the beginning of the book, Ralph finds a conch shells and makes a rule for all the boys that only the person holding the conch shell has the ability to speak. Power was abused in this scenario because Ralph and Jack let Simon and a few other boys speak without holding the conch shell. Simon also got to go out and explore the island in the beginning because he was one of the favorites.

The first thing Jack decided to change within him was his name. “'Kid's names,' said Merridew. 'Why should I be Jack? I'm Merridew,'” (21). The name that he used back at home, Jack, is filled with memories of civilization. By changing his name to Merridew, he wants to build up a different Jack. His attempt to change the name was his first evidence to escape the civilization and being a kid. Originally, Jack was just an ordinary British schoolboy. He was dressed up neatly and tidy. However, as the savage grew over him, the civilization disappeared. He ran around naked, with long hair in a dirty environment. Soon, the savage compelled him, creating the mask figure inside him. "...the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness," (64). The mask gave him power, dismissed him from self-consciousness- he wasn’t Jack anymore. Furthermore, Jack who had a high-class education, such as music, went insane over the hunting. When Ralph asked him who he wanted to be in the island, he had chosen the hunter. Why? As all the other boys in the island, Jack had to live through so many restrictions and rules. Especially, his fun was restricted Whether he was at school or home. The rules always tailed along him. Whereas, in the island, there were none. They could do whatever they want for fun, such as hunting. The hunt symbolizes the savagery but also their loss of

In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of young British boys are left stranded on an island after a fatal plane crash in the midst of a World War. With no communication to the outer world and no presence or influence of adults on the island, Ralph, Jack Merridew, and Piggy are forced to take initiative if the group of hopeless boys want to survive. The group of boys experience a drastic change throughout their time on the island, a change that no one would ever expect to occur to a young group of primed British boys. The leader of the stranded choirists on the island, Jack Merridew, shows such a change that he soon persuades other boys to follow his savage actions as the novel progresses. Though the changes to Jack’s mental and physical characteristics advance slowly at first, the final personality of Jack is instantly taken over at the climax of the novel to a dehumanized savage. Jack’s innocence is corrupted by his inability to withstand a society without rules proving man's good essential nature is altered by the evil within society.

One of the strongest forms of adversity came in the form of a strong and outspoken boy Jack; Jack often overwhelms and disregards things that Ralph, the chief of the boys on the island, has said to be done. Ralph, we can see, struggles to hold his control over the group of boys when Jack refuses to believe the importance of these jobs. Ralph’s biggest struggle against adversity against Jack happens during a time of

From the beginning, Ralph is elected chief of the boys and his authority is based upon the conch. The conch symbolizes democracy and Ralph’s power. Soon Jack’s jealously and addiction to savagery increased his desire to be chief. During one argument scene, Jack says, "And you shut up! Who are you, anyway? Sitting there telling people what to do. You can't hunt, you can't sing."(Golding) Jack begins to show character of an evil leader in himself; he blames Ralph for not doing anything productive for everyone. Implying that Jack alters the other boys’’ decisions between right and wrong, he continues to strive for dictatorship using brutal force. Likewise, Ralph stays democratic and gives other boys respect. ”Ralph realistically confronts the problem of survival and works out a practical plan for rescue. Jack is quick to revert to savagery, dishonesty, violence.” (Dickson 12-26) Contrary to Lord of the Flies, A Separate Peace features dominance over friendship. To begin with, Gene leads himself into malevolence towards Finny. “Gene is the persecuting double, bent upon his own selfish will to power and desired annihilation of Finny, while Finny is the beneficent double, through his sacrificial death bringing about hope and spiritual growth for Gene.” (Slethaug 259-270) Gene wants to eliminate Finny from his life and become the best at the Devon School. Gene’s character was approached in an egotistical manner . Another factor which increased control over friendship is

Now you can see that Jack is starting to build his savage tendencies by arguing against the rules and Ralph is trying to convince Jack to stay civilized. Jack starts to begin to get stressed out and does not want to follow the rules anymore. The longer Jack is staying on the island, the more his inner savage expresses. “Conch! Conch!’

However, something begins to dwell within Jack as he did not become a leader; instead, Ralph did because of the conch. The conch represents rules and government of society which the boys had been taught by their whole lives, but now on the island, there were no constrictions from society because of this Jack quickly loses interest in the conch and

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, Your Honor, a terrible crime has been committed. Around five months ago, an aeroplane crashed into an abandoned island. This plane was carrying children and the only adults were the pilot and copilot who died on the scene. The children that survived created a society that kept them alive for two months, give or take a few weeks. They established a society where everyone had a place; a society that was ruled by a single chief, which was one of the elder boys. This boy tried to the best of his ability to keep everyone safe and keep peace among all the children. Ladies and Gentlemen, not all of the boys survived, some were killed by their fellow island mates. One of these boys was named Simon. Simon was killed

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies presents a story of a group of boys who become stranded on an island together, and in their struggle to survive; some begin to fight for power. Having power makes them feel in control of their situation; however, this power struggle quickly begins to consume them. Golding uses the power struggle between Ralph and Jack, the two main characters, to illustrate the power struggle between good and evil.

Roger is the second antagonist in the novel. Jack Merridew’s best friend is Roger and they both are too close to each other. Roger has got black hair. The boy is described as a barbarian, cruel, furtive and dark boy. He is the most violent, naughty and aggressive of all the boys.

The fact that Jack has gone from being an orderly choirboy to an animal-like savage, displays humans inability to create and abide by an organised regime. Golding elucidates his pessimistic view of humanity through the hopeless position Jack and the others find themselves in. Ralph's authority over the boys also becomes limited. The fact that Ralph and Jack's order of priorities are so different, Ralph's being the "fire" and Jack's being "hunting", at once results in a division within the group.

The conflict between Ralph and Jack shows how lack of civilization can result to savagery. Ralph states, “We need shelters” contrasting to Jack who says, “We need meat” (Golding, p.42). The lack of civilization in Jack shows because he thinks hunting is more important than shelters although he has yet to catch a pig, while on the other hand Ralph thinks it’s more important to build shelter for a sense of home and protection from the rain and the beastie that all the littluns are afraid of. “Let him be chief with the trumpet-thing”(Golding, p. 15). This quote states that Ralph should be in charge because he has the conch, and Jack gets upset since he is not voted chief but then Ralph puts him charge of the choir boys who later on become the hunters. Ralph creates civilization when he is given power to become the chief on the island, and he has the power with or without the conch. Later in the novel when Ralph realizes he doesn’t like being dirty and “disliked perpetually flicking the tangled hair put of his eyes,” it shows that Ralph is used the civilization he had before and wants to return to that civilization (Golding, p.66). Then Jack becomes an example of savagery when he shows up to the fire in chapter 8, “stark naked save for the paint and a belt” (Golding, p.125). Ralph and his followers show the civilized and orderly side of the island, but on the contrary, Jack and his tribe show the savagery of man and barbaric side of the island.

The isolation that comes with crashing on a deserted island affects all the characters, seen most dramatically through Jack. Being brought into this setting transforms the civilized choir leader into a savage hunter and murderer who’s given into his inner demons. When the boys first crash land onto the island, they were proper English schoolboys. Due to the separation from society, however, the boys start to regress, giving in to their more animalistic instincts. Jack starts off as the ‘‘chapter chorister and head boy’” who tries to take leadership of the tribe the boys form; he fails to do so, turning him away from order and reason (Golding 22). He neglects his duties and turns his attention to hunting the native pigs, prompting him to let the fire, their gateway back to society, go out; this pits Ralph against Jack, who represent civilization and savagery

Jack is fairly successful at this, helped by the false fear brought about by the widespread belief among many of the boys that there is a beast on the island. This conflict rapidly escalates and eventually directly and indirectly leads to the deaths of various boys and the eventual rescue of the boys by a naval officer. This book presents a perfect example of the real power that jealousy has to divide people and the destructive power it has. In many regards Ralph and Jack are fairly similar, this is best exemplified by their leadership skills. Ralph and Jack both form semi-organized groups that are capable of surviving, even if those groups differed in terms of ideology.

Jack Merridew is presented as the indifferent, older character of the novel. He is the antagonist and could be seen as a devil figure in the story. Jack is the hunter, the dictator and, throughout the story, is at constant battle with Ralph for his leadership. Jack wants to be in control of the island and the kids but the type of leadership that he offers is brutal and similar to that of a dictatorship and communism. Jack also believes that the group should have fun and stuff oneself with the food they hunt. He is not very concerned with the future of being rescued. On the other hand, Ralph wants order and work and is much more concern with being rescued.